Minnesota Laws On DWIs, Porn, Traffic And More Take Effect Aug. 1

MINNESOTA — Staff at the Minnesota State Legislature have released a list of select new laws passed during the 2018 legislative session that will take effect Aug. 1, 2018.

The new regulations cover topics including marriage, kids, DWIs, and more. Below is a summary of each new law:

Health savings accounts now protected from creditors

Creditors will no longer be able to target health savings accounts in attempting to collect debts.

Sign Up For Patch's Daily Newsletter and Breaking News Alerts in Your Neighborhood

State to count stillbirths along with live births

A new law will count birth defects in stillborn babies when tabulating birth defects in the state.

Law makes it criminal to fib about a service animal

• A new law will make it a crime to knowingly misrepresent an animal in one’s possession as an assistance animal in a public place to obtain rights or privileges available to someone who qualifies for a service animal under state or federal law.
• A first-time violation will be a petty misdemeanor; subsequent offenses will be misdemeanors.

DWI loophole for snowmobile, ATV use closed

A new law closes a loophole in state statute regarding DWI offenses and off-road vehicles. The law expands the prohibition on operating off-road vehicles following a DWI conviction and eliminates an exemption that allowed drivers to keep their licenses following an off-road vehicle DWI offense.

Under a prior law, a person who operated a snowmobile or all-terrain vehicle while over the legal alcohol limit was prohibited from operating those off-road vehicles for one year. The updated law expands the prohibition so that it applies to a person who commits a DWI offense in any vehicle.

Also included in the updated law is the prohibition of a person who commits a DWI offense in any vehicle from operating a motorboat for a 90-day period between May 1 and Oct. 31.

The new law is known as “Little Allen’s Law” in honor of an 8-year-old boy who was struck and killed by a man operating a snowmobile while intoxicated after his driver’s license had been revoked for a prior DWI offense.

Additionally, the law directs the Department of Natural Resources to work with ice fish house manufacturers to increase outreach efforts explaining the dangers of carbon monoxide exposure in ice houses.

Unmarried parents receive same rights as divorced couples in child custody process

Instead of going through a lengthy court battle, unmarried parents filing for joint child custody will be afforded the same rights as divorced parents. A new law will allow unmarried parents to file joint petitions for custody, parenting time and child support in family court when all the parties agree on the terms. Before the law, only formerly married parents could use the expedited process.

Unmarried parents will now be able to file the joint petition without a summons, so long as the petition includes a recognition of parentage that says there isn’t any other alleged or presumed father.

The law will allow unmarried parents to appear in a hearing before a judge, but not have to go through the entire family court process.

Regions Hospital receives permission to expand

A new law will give Regions Hospital in St. Paul the state’s blessing to build an expansion that is expected to add 60 beds to its facility.

Sibling bill of rights is now law

A new “bill of rights” will ensure siblings in foster care get to visit each other. The new law establishes a set of rights for foster care children, including the right to be placed with their siblings when possible and to visit their siblings.

Child welfare agency staff will be required to give a copy of the bill of rights to children upon entry into foster care. The law does not specify ramifications if the rights are violated. Foster family license holders and caregivers, and foster residence staff are required to undergo at least one hour of training on fetal alcohol spectrum disorders per year.

The new law says this must be counted towards the 12 hours of annual training required.

Porn, sex trafficking data connection sought

The Department of Public Safety will be required to collect information on how pornography supports sex trafficking through things like demand, grooming victims and creating additional revenue streams for traffickers.

A new law will acknowledge the link between sex trafficking and pornography by expanding the crimes for which the department must gather statistical data for its human trafficking report to include possession of pornographic work involving minors and prohibition of dissemination and display of harmful materials to minors. The report is published every two years.

The law will also add eight crimes to the list of prostitution-related offenses for which the court imposes an assessment between $500 and $1,000 in addition to any fine.

They include coercion, labor trafficking, solicitation of a child and possession of pornographic work involving minors.

Under current law, 40 percent of that money goes to the local political subdivision that employs the arresting officer to be used to combat sexual exploitation of youth; 40 percent to the state’s safe harbor account that provides services to sexually exploited youth; and 20 percent to the prosecuting agency to be used to combat the sexual exploitation of youth.

Mandated training for hotel employees to recognize sex trafficking

A new law mandates that every hotel and motel in Minnesota, with the exception of resorts, train its employees to identify sex trafficking at their establishment within 90 days of hiring them or 120 days after enactment of a new law.

Effective Aug. 1, 2018, the law calls for the Department of Health to consult with the Minnesota Lodging Association and others to determine training that would be required. However, the training must include what sex trafficking is, as well as how to recognize trafficking victims and activities.

Costs associated with the annual training will be paid for by the lodging facility.

An exemption is provided for minor employees, restaurant workers and those who do not have direct contact with guests. It also grants civil immunity for employees from being sued for reporting what they believe is sex trafficking.

Minnesota’s "move over law" is broadened

A new law will require motorists to slow down on streets or highways with only one lane in the motorist’s direction when passing emergency vehicles — and other vehicles like tow trucks, road maintenance and utility vehicles — that are stopped on the side of the roadway with emergency or warning lights activated.

Similarly, if it’s not possible for a driver to move over on a multi-lane street or highway, drivers are required to reduce the speed of their motor vehicle to a speed “that is reasonable and prudent under the conditions” until the vehicle has completely passed the parked or stopped vehicle.

Highway to honor fallen Wayzata officer

A stretch of U.S. Highway 12 in suburban Wayzata will be renamed as “Officer Bill Mathews Memorial Highway.”

Mathews was a Wayzata police officer who was fatally struck in September 2017 by an inattentive motorist while clearing debris from the stretch of roadway that will bear his name.

View more laws taking effect Aug. 1 below:

Image via Shutterstock / StacieStauffSmith Photos